We live in a content-driven world but how do you make your business stand out amongst everyone else? Small to medium-sized businesses need to create content that connects with their customers. They need a reason to buy from you and not bigger businesses who have a huge advertising budget. Knowing why you are selling something, who you are talking to and what channels they hang out on is vital. Content planning will enable you to save time and money because you are directing your energy and time in a focussed way. A scattergun approach to content just won’t work.

Four reasons why you should plan content

It keeps you focused on your goal and customers

Remember, your ideal customers are looking for answers and your business has those answers. By having a clear plan you know why and who you are creating content for and when to share it. You are wasting time and money if you create content that is irrelevant to your audience.

It avoids content overwhelm and chaos

You can produce a coherent flow of different types of content and share it at the right time across all your platforms much more effectively. You are not left in a panic trying to think of something useful when you realised you haven’t posted anything for a while. Constant scheduling of quality content will help keep your audience engaged and will help to build trust. You also won’t miss important dates and will have a clear idea of what to create when promoting a new product or event.

It keeps you on brand

A plan will ensure you portray the correct tone and style for your business across all your marketing channels. Building a strong brand is key to helping you stand out from your competitors. You also have time to research top influencers content that will add value to your own.

You know what’s working and what’s not

It’s much easier to see which content is getting the most engagement, at what times, and on what platforms. By using analytics and then comparing to your plan you can work out what worked well and what flopped. You can then reuse and repurpose old social media posts, blogs etc. to help you create higher quality content sildentadal.com. Quality content is more likely to be read and shared!

Create an editorial roadmap for the year

It is a good idea to create an editorial roadmap for the year, write down key selling days, events and courses you want to promote. Look at suitable awareness days and other events you can use to amplify the content too. When I write for Families magazines we plan our content a year in advance.

The key benefits are:

• You can be prepared for predictable trends. We always do a craft or cooking feature at Easter as we know that our readers love these. We also cover things to book for the summer like friendly-friendly festivals
• It helps you brainstorm ideas far in advance
• If you are lucky enough to have a small team or assistant you can plan together
• You may be able to be clever with your content and use it for more than one trend or key date. You can then target more than one goal at time!

Always remember to have an end goal in mind when you write your content!

Get organised with my 2019 Content Planner. It contains handy key dates as well as weekly and monthly easy to follow printable templates.

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Image: daniele-riggi-635135-unsplash.